Mein Monster
by YamiTenshi
Summary: In shadows he saw truth. He sought solace in the light for years until causality drove him into a world he'd spent his life escaping. Things DO go bump in the night. And Naruto is ready to bring along the asylum's newest member along for the ride. NaruGaa


Mein Monster

I figure I should get at least one of each type of fanfiction cliché in and see how I do on it. Asylum and vampire were really the only two left that I could think of. And assassin. I forgot about that one. But I decided to do asylum because I've never really liked how vampire stories are either unnecessarily violent or overly romanticized. And the 'I don't want to bite you because while you think this is a gift, it's actually a curse' scenario I see in almost every single one of those stories really trips my trigger. So, an asylum fic it was.

**Note: I revised this chapter a little. Mostly because I got called out by a lovely German reader who made a couple of very good points. Thank you, dear. I fixed the title too. For that, I'm putting a special creature in just for you. (But it won't show up for a while…)**

0o0

Ch.1 The Whiteness

0o0

White walls. White paper. White food trays. The bright white lightbulb that never went out. Necessary tools for the survival of Uzumaki Naruto. Legs crossed, he sketched out his ideal world of a glorious, shining city, shivering because he was freezing. Each stroke of his pencil brought it that much closer to completion. A pure, unadulterated landscape of the whiteness he so adored. No humans would be allowed to live in it but himself. And the lights would never fade or flicker. All would be light, true light, the light that has no darkness. The constant fear of that dreadful absence of color would ebb away, he would become a being of light himself, one that brought whiteness with him wherever he went.

If only it were real. If only that could be possible.

Goosebumps covered every square millimeter of his flesh and whispers of icy wind breezed through his veins with each shallow breath. Outside, virgin snowflakes danced a silent symphony on the dark evening winds. Night was nigh. Darkness was drawing closer on a chariot drawn by stallions of a rapidly decreasing sunset. Winter was a dreadful time for him. Though there was so much of the whiteness in massive drifts just outside, its sinister counterpart was always alongside it, never separating from it. Neither were particularly accommodating, the whiteness brought cold, the shades brought the void. Cold filled your soul and killed it slowly, the void swallowed it whole and ripped it to shreds with anonymous claws and fangs under a cloak of mystery.

His sweater, also of the color he desperately sought solace in was made of thick, itchy wool, wasn't enough to keep him sufficiently warm and the heaters had been broken in this wing for months. He refused every blanket they'd ever offered to give him despite how cold it got during the winter. Freezing to death was simply a better option in his mind than to face darkness. It was too much of a risk.

Naruto saw certain things. Strange things. Nightmarish things. Things he desperately wished he could un-see. Most seventeen year-olds may have had an encounter or two that they thought was supernatural in nature—ghosts, monsters under the bed, the infamous Boogey Man when one was a child and had a vast overactive imagination—but it was nothing compared to what Naruto saw. The difference between those regular encounters of an average seventeen year-olds' and Naruto's was that a regular encounter wouldn't have gotten you locked up in an asylum for the great majority of your life, going back to your first, hazy memory of someone saying _'the sedatives aren't working, are you sure you can't prescribe a higher dosage without causing him permanent harm?'_

That memory for Naruto was at the age of five. He wasn't quite sure how long he'd been here in exact day amounts, but whoever was taking care of him before they reached their last string of patience and finally shipped him off had endured two thousand and twenty days of his troublesome sight. All medical options had been pursued to the fullest extent from sedation and anxiety medications, hypnosis, and any other treatment under the sun before they finally handed him over to the local asylum with the words, _'he's your problem now'_.

One of the more spiteful nurses who he'd made quit had told him that his mother committed suicide when he was three because she couldn't take having such a stressful, high-maintenance child for another second. The official verdict was post-partum depression, but anyone who'd ever met Naruto didn't blame her. After a couple of days of his presence, most of the staff who worked in that area quit for the sake of their prolonged mental health. Many a loved one had had to comfort their partner who came home, cracked open a bottle of brandy, and started on how Naruto had been hallucinating again today. Naruto's healing was supposed to begin when he was committed, but not even an ounce of progress had been made on his problem despite the passage of twelve years. But it wasn't really a problem.

It was the truth.

Naruto saw monsters. Ghouls. Bakemono. Whatever you wanted to call them. It was all the same in the end. They lived in a world parallel to ours, traveling through shadows to monger fear and that was the truth that Naruto knew.

Ever since the day he'd been born, he'd screamed and screamed and screamed if he was ever put into darkness because he could hear them, see them, smell them, those horrid beasts all _looming_ around him. The sharp little claws of the small ones would scratch and scrabble like rats as they scuttled from shadow to shadow and the big ones had a rhythmic click as they touted the human's lack of ability to see them. They stunk too, blood and gore permeating whatever form of flesh covering they happened to have in a dreadful perfume. No child, even a baby that was barely aware of itself, could sleep with a demon hunched over his crib, licking him with a long, slithery snake-tongue to appraise his flavor value.

Neither could a seventeen year old.

He took no chances to let them at him. The wards didn't either for the sake of keeping peace in the crazyhouse. Anything that could create a significant shadow wasn't allowed in his room. His light was never to go off and if it ever got dim, it was to be changed while he ate or was using the toilet. His odd habit of collecting flashlights was acceptable and if he asked for batteries, he was to be given them immediately and without question. So far, the system of appeasement had worked.

But no system is perfect.

Humans tended to interfere.

One of his fellow inmates, a dark haired boy named Sai, opened his door on this particular day in all of the days he'd spent in this same room to set off the destruction of his system. "Hey Whitey, move it. We have a new guy and it's group therapy day."

Naruto glanced up at Sai, pouting because he hated group therapy and would rather stay in his wonderful white room where he was out of the darkness and much better for it all. He waved his sketchpad at Sai to show him that he was doing something much more worthwhile than trying to 'admit' that he had a problem (which naturally could be over-diagnosed with lots of expensive little pills) and that he needed to overcome it. He wasn't about to go anywhere, not this night or any other like it.

"No way. I got in trouble because you skipped out on the last three therapy days. If you don't get up, I _will_ turn off your light and lock you in here with all the monsters." That was pretty much the only threat that affected Naruto. Being called a dickless pantywaist prison bitch had no meaning to him and Sai hated that. All his good insults were wasted on the blonde.

Naruto shook his head and gestured to his sketchpad again. Sai wouldn't turn off his light. It was against the rules. That was one of the main rules for new staff members. _'This is Naruto. Don't ever turn off his light. If you do, you're fired.'_ He continued to sketch a window in his immaculate city, paying no mind to the boy.

"You can't say I didn't warn you, Whitey."

Sai pulled a peculiar looking device out of his pocket. It was two forks taped together so that the tips of their tines pointed towards each other, a rubber band looped around a particular set of tines. In simpler words, a crude slingshot. Sai pulled a confession marble from therapy out of his pocket, set it in the rubber band as he stretched it back, took aim, and let it rocket through the air. The lightbulb shattered when it took the hit, scattering splintering shards across the room and plunging it into the dreaded darkness.

Sai quickly closed the door and locked it, going on his merry way with a grand smile plastered on his face. Hell, he even felt like skipping a little bit. He wasn't about to do such a ridiculous thing, but it was the thought that counted, right? He'd just tell them that he'd tried really hard to get Naruto to leave, but the boy hadn't wanted to go to therapy yet again. He was a pathological liar, after all.

Shock was the first emotion that allowed itself to register in Naruto's head. It was pitch black, with only the pale snow moon shining through his small window. The room suddenly seemed that much vaster, a grand dining hall of the nouveau riche that engulfed him with its size. Shadows had weight now and he could feel them closing in on him, pressing down on him with the reverse gravity. He was drowning. And he could hear them coming.

With great haste, he fumbled with a few flashlights, managing to get a few on to cut through the void to stave off what would soon arrive. Tossing his precious sketchbook to the side, he struggled to get up on his numb, sleeping legs. The tingling prickle of pins and needles in his lower would certainly be the death of him. His hand searched for a wall to steady himself, it missed and found the floor instead. There were no more walls. Like a dog, he scuttled to the locked door and tried furiously to open it. When that failed to work, he simply devolved and began beating it savagely.

Flailing his fists blindly, he daren't look back for fear that the beasts were already there, lurking at an unspecified distance, laughing and waiting for him to succumb to their shadowy claws. He hit the cold door so hard so many times that he was sure the bones in his hands would break, screaming himself raw for a staff member, a patient, _anyone_ to let him out. But it was no use. A dark winter's eve in Naruto's section? The nurses would sooner beat one another to death than take that time slot.

Naruto clutched at the cobalt mini-flashlight around his neck. All his white was turned to black. He was going to die and no one would come save him. When he came to this realization, he slumped against the door, whimpering and moaning pitifully. He was dead.

He looked back.

It was darker than before.

He counted the beams of the scattered flashlights. Five. He remembered turning on seven. There was no way they could've burned out that fast. He'd replaced the batteries this morning.

Before his eyes, another went out with a small _chk._

Down the line they went, going out one by one, sinking the room into further darkness.

_Chk. Chk. Chk._

Fear of death spurred him into one final desperate assault, beating the door even more ferociously before, but it didn't yield in the least. Even the force of his full body couldn't make it so much as shudder. His mouth felt sour and his feeling of sickness grew as the room became darker still and he heard the click of claws. Wet warmth gusted against the back of his neck. A heavy paw rested itself on his shoulder, claws almost penetrating his flesh as the even breaths dragged in and out slowly. Naruto's heart palpitated like that of a hummingbird, ready to explode at any second.

The last flashlight went out.

"_**Hello Naruto. Why don't you ever play with us?"**_

Naruto turned the mini-torch on as his last pathetic line of defense and shone it up at the beast, which turned out to be a horrible idea on account of the two rows of sharpened, carnal fangs that met his gaze. Saliva curled around the numerous canines, beading on the tips in quivering dew. The beast's hot breath stank of carrion. The teeth locked together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, black gums presenting themselves as the ebony to the ivory they held, lips turning up in a bestial grin. The stink was something in and of itself to behold. The skunkish fox smell was combined with a strong overtone of blood and the completely unsubtle hint of guts in a deathly fragrance. He felt his stomach turn as the monster got closer still, worsening the stench and he when he opened his mouth to scream, he found acidic vomit coming out instead, staining his sweater.

Claws wrapped around his fingers with alarming dexterity and lifted the flashlight from around his neck, turning it off and discarding it on the floor. It rolled away, far out of his reach.

"_**There's no need for that silly nuisance."**_ The voice he heard before purred with his sultry tongue. Had Naruto known what crushed velvet was, he would've said that this was the verbal equivalent but the noxious breath killed the effect some.

"_**I agree."**_

There were two of them?

The second one had a high (yet obviously still male), raspy voice that sounded like he had sandpaper for a tongue. _**"But he still makes a valid point. Why are you trying to stay out of our world?"**_

Naruto sobbed, curling into the door.

"_**You don't have to say anything. We can read your thoughts."**_ The high pitched voice grated aggressively on Naruto's mind like steel on steel.

'_MONSTERSMONSTERSMONSTERS__! MONSTERSINMYHEAD! INMYHEADDONTWANTHEMINMYHEAD! DONTWANTTHEMINMYHEADGONNA DIE—'_

"_**Hey, don't say that, kit. We monsters and demons get a bad rep, but some of us are really nice guys,"**_ said the first one, licking its dagger fangs.

"_**Hmph. Speak for yourself. I like killing people."**_ The second one planted his heavy rump against the ground.

"_**Shut up, you sandy bastard. You aren't helping the situation."**_

'_MONSTERSGONNADIE! RIPMYGUTSOUTBITEMYHEADOFF! HELPSOMEONEPLEASEHELPME! GONNADIEHELPMEHELPMEHELPME—'_

"_**We're not going to kill you, kit. Honest. We're here to help you."**_

"_**For the love of Rubicante, hurry up and tell him! I can hear those humans coming..."**_ The second demon rasped.

"_**Listen up, kit. Damn, I called you kit again. Listen up…"**_ the fox beast sighed, annoyed at his mistake._** "My lord... This is not the world you belong to. There's a lot of specific details that I can't really go into right now."**_

'_—'_

"_**Dammit. The humans are here. Listen to me, we don't want to hurt you. We're your friends."**_

'…_Friend...? Not gonna die?'_

"_**Not if we can help it. Everyone is waiting for your safe return."**_

"Naruto? Are you okay?" The door unlocks and light began to spill in, sending the shadows fleeing.

"_**See you soon, my lord."**_ The demons dissipated as the door was flung open.

And while the staff exerted concern for him and sent him to the bathroom to take a shower to get the vomit smell off of him, Naruto thought of nothing but them. Monsters wanted to be his first-ever friends?

I0I0I0I0I

"Well, I see that _someone_ decided to finally join us."

Naruto shrunk under the stare of his fellow inmates, especially that of Ms. Anko. He took a seat in the circle of chairs he'd seen constantly since his confinement all those years ago, not making eye contact with them. Seeing as he didn't care for people much, he stared down at his lap. He'd been forced to go straight to group therapy after his shower, so he didn't even have time to get his sketchbook or his mini-torch. His fingers itched to draw so he could distract himself from the world that rotated around him.

"I heard you had another run-in with the monsters. Did you have a lot of fun?" Anko smirked as Naruto sunk deeper into himself from the sheer shame. "Did they bite your head off? Did they rip your guts out? Tell us, what did they do to you?"

"Cut it out," a low, slightly husky voice said. "You're supposed to be a therapist, aren't you?"

Naruto looked to his right to see the new kid. Without even realizing it, he'd taken his place in the hard plastic chair beside him. He'd never seen anyone quite like him before. He wore a cashmere sweater of the dreadful non-color, but his skin—god, his perfect, flawless skin!—it was white, so beautifully, beautifully white. So pale, so pretty. Almost inhuman. And loathe to say it as he was, the darkness gave him an ethereal glow. A white god in black. A blizzard shrouded in darkness. Naruto could care less about the romance-red hair or the soulful seas that lived in those aqua eyes, it was that lovely skin that consumed his thoughts. Was all of it that milky moon shade? He wanted to know, he wanted to touch every square centimeter of that pure, living whiteness to investigate this creature of light with the utmost thoroughness. His frame was as sharp as a butterfly knife, belying only a smidgen of his potential power. Under his sleeves was another bit of whiteness: tightly wrapped gauze around his wrists.

Naruto knew that sign. Attempted suicide. While most of those who came in for that were whiny little bitches, he knew this boy was a rare gem. He liked him already. Maybe he could call this being of light a friend if he truly wasn't like any of the other characters who came in and out of here regularly. They usually had enough of those already in their heads. Why add a shadow-fearing blonde to the mix?

"Well, he stood up for you, Naruto. Why don't you say 'thank you' to show that you appreciate it?" Anko's smirk grew wider and she seemed less human by the second, more like the demons that haunted his every thought. She'd fit in perfectly in their world.

A few of the other members of the circle snickered. The redhead was confused. He only did it because he didn't agree with what she was doing to him. Therapists were supposed to help clients, not ridicule them. Gratitude from a stranger wasn't his goal. He looked down at the faerie of a blonde beside him and was surprised to find that the boy's cheeks burned with shame. Would it be too damaging to his pride to thank a stranger or was there some other reason?

"What's wrong? Do you want to be ungrateful?" Naruto shook his head. "Then say 'thank you'. It's only good manners."

Naruto looked at the redhead, who still had absolutely no idea of what was going on. Though he knew that the new boy would find out eventually, he didn't want to humiliate himself in front of everyone. But he did want to thank him. Even if he had to transcend words to do so, he would not allow himself to be unappreciative of the new boy's efforts. So he wrapped his arms around the pale boy's thin frame, burying his blushing face in a bony shoulder. The boy, having a light shade of flesh, flushed ever darker than the blonde as he received the unexpected hug.

Sai felt his jaw drop. This would be the greatest day of his institutionalized life. There was so much he could make up about this! "Whoa, fag alert! I didn't know Whitey was like that!"

"Indulging in such a heinous sin in public is disgusting," a girl with strawberry blonde hair bluntly stated, turning her nose up at them. "They're going to burn in Hell."

"You know what else is heinous and disgusting? Your anorexia, Miss Haruno," Anko quipped, eyes flashing sharply at the girl for speaking out of turn, quickly redirecting her assault to Naruto once more. "And besides, he's never read a single word of the Good Book. Why bother with trying to enforce morals he can't even—"

The redhead got them all to silence themselves by doing the thing they least expected. He hugged Naruto back. The blonde boy was soft and smelled freshly showered, his hair still a tad bit wet when he closed his eyes and buried his face in it. The body attaching itself to him was small and quivered under his touch, expecting to be beaten or shoved away. The redhead was familiar with the sensation because he imagined he was shaking a little himself and knew what it was like to have endeavored gestures of affection driven away violently. He could almost hear the boy's thoughts screaming 'save me, save me' like they were being spoken.

Some primal part of him panged deeply in his heart. There must be something he could do about the blonde's misery. The desire to keep him happy overwhelmed him like a wave. He didn't believe in destiny, but there was a reason for this moment, he was meant to meet this person. He felt like he'd known him all his life. They were kindred souls and he found it odd to discover someone as wretchedly lonely as himself in such a place as this.

Though it lacked the deeper connection of a kiss, the two got to experience their first hug. The redhead didn't know what'd been going on during the boy's stay in the asylum, but from what he'd seen so far, he had a feeling that he wouldn't like it in the least. Things, he decided with a concrete resolution, were going to change. If he was going to stay here, why not cause a little hell? And with a purpose, then it was all for the better! The blonde had a je ne sais quoi around him and he wasn't going to give up a chance to spend time with someone like himself. Blondie and he were going to paint the asylum red.

They had nine seconds of hush before the comments started up again.

"I think we have a love connection going on!" Sai chortled, his mind creating fodder for lies he would eagerly spread.

"They is being strange boys," noted Tenten as she passed by with a cart full of bed linens. She was a staff member who was almost completely inept at anything besides her native Chinese language, but managed to get a job as a maid at the asylum because of how cheap they could get her to work for.

"Where's Sasuke? He needs to see this!" Sai howled, breaking his usual stonewalled expression to lose himself in laughter. This was _definitely_ the finest day he'd had in here. "His best friend is a queer!"

On hearing his name from down the hall, the other boy shouted, "I'm on kitchen duty, you lying sack of shit!"

"Clean up your fucking language!" Anko snapped, curling her fingers into claws, tensing them with the intent of ripping out any patient's throat who dared to defy her.

"How about you? Goddamn psycho bitch!"

"I'm not going to sit here and yell at you! If you want a conversation, get in here!"

These were _her_ patients. She didn't fill out their prescriptions, but she had the magic pen that could write down any diagnosis that she pleased and no one would argue with it. A boy who likes violent movies and has a fascination with guns? Sociopath in training! A girl who got busted in school for drawing pictures of questionable content (i.e. yaoi)? Repressed lesbian! A quiet kid who doesn't like being in large groups and shirks the loud parts of the world? Manic depressive! She could make it rain Ritalin and pour Prozac. Write a verdict and get paid! She'd had patients sent to hospitals, asylums, and gay rehabilitation camps at the whim of her pen! She could play God in her own universe, controlling the lives of these hapless souls, playing the sucker parents of adolescents like a fiddle. Over-attentive parents loved to shell out the dough so their beloved children could be 'normal' and stable to fill out their Norman Rockwell painting of a family. Happy parents meant big bonuses.

And to Anko, that was all that mattered in this life. Sex, blood, and money. Since the other two were things that she could get without any effort at all, she enjoyed having at least _some_ challenge. She hated it when she got assigned to places like this. Half of the people she had to treat were nowhere near the goldmines she could find in the average high school. A majority of the families surrounding the loonies here had given up on them a long time ago. And with Naruto, she couldn't draw a red cent aside from the base salary the institution paid her for working with him. He wasted her time. Time was money. So he wasted her money and that was something she would not stand for. She intended to make his every moment in her presence a living hell.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway approaching them quicker than anyone had anticipated, and Naruto tried to escape from his return to sender hug, but the redhead wasn't having any of it. "It's okay. Ignore them. Ignore everything but me."

"Naruto, what's going on? Are they being asses again?" Sasuke paused when he saw the blonde he'd known for ages hugging and in turn being hugged by a stranger.

"Is that your name?" the new boy asked softly, in a voice that was lower than a whisper. Naruto nodded. "I don't care if you hate me in five minutes, but I swear on everything in this world that is holy that I will protect you from these beasts."

He didn't get a response because Anko swiftly interrupted. "Alright, break it up you two. You don't even know jack shit about each other."

Gaara was quick to challenge her. "Sounds like you want to tell us something."

Anko pointed at Naruto with an aubergine nail. "This is Naruto. He's afraid of the dark a whole lot more than a seventeen year old should be and thinks there are monsters in the shadows. He's been taking up space here for a hell of a lot longer than anyone else in here." Her finger turned to the redhead. "That's Gaara. He tried to kill himself." Once that was settled, she said, "Now it's time for lunch, so all of you need to hurry up and get the hell out of my sight."

Disregarding the comment, Gaara stood up and offered his hand to Naruto. With a sideways glance he said, "Lady, go fuck yourself."

Her eyes went serpentine sharp. "Be careful who you mess with, boy."

Sasuke, not in one of his usual suicidal hazes, began walking towards the blonde who he'd defaulted as his support system. "Naruto, do you want to—"

"Sasuke, let's eat lunch together!" Sakura squealed, dragging him off against his will.

"But you don't eat!"

Naruto tightened his grip on Gaara's hand, savoring the warmth he found within it. A human friend to call his own. It must be his lucky day.

I0I0I0I0I

Gaara stirred his ramen around the bowl. Since he was sitting with Naruto, the cook figured that he'd have the same taste in food and cooked up another bowl of that ten cent stuff that came in packets. The blonde attacked the beef ramen like he hadn't eaten in days and though he had tried, Gaara hadn't managed to coerce a single word out of him. Ironic, considering that if it had been him and anyone else, it would've been the other way around. He now knew a measure of the frustration people felt when they tried to talk to him.

"You _can_ speak, right?"

Naruto shrugged, sucking up a strand of noodles. It had been a long time since he'd even bothered trying. Not since the only person who had ever been nice to him died. How long ago had that been? A few years at the least. He hadn't thought about it in a while. He smiled at his human compatriot as he tried to get a scale of time, licking the salty broth from his lips every now and then.

"Is there something wrong with you that doesn't let you speak?"

The blonde pretended like he didn't hear the question and fished more noodles out of the seasoned water.

"That Sasuke guy, is he your friend?"

Naruto shrugged, not knowing what to consider the brunette boy. Usually he was stuffed with so many uppers, downers, and mood stabilizers that he wouldn't even spare a passing glance. Sasuke would occasionally invite him into his room and just spill his guts about everything he hated about himself and the world for a couple of hours, letting absorb Naruto it all like some mighty sponge of sorrow until he said that he felt better. After that, he usually kicked him out to build up his emotions for the next big flooding confession. Naruto wasn't sure if that was friendship or free therapy.

"It's hard to talk when you won't talk back."

Inwardly, Naruto felt bad. He didn't want to lose his human friend because he couldn't communicate properly. So he opened his mouth and spoke.

"Everyone says I'm broken."

Gaara felt the bottom of his stomach fall out as that voice said those words. For the first time in years, he felt like weeping. Each syllable queued up perfectly in his mind, resonating so deeply within him that he reached a state of being he had never realized was possible. Some submerged part of soul rose up upon hearing the statement and he knew, from the bottom of his heart, that overseeing the blonde's welfare was his god-given duty. Every hair, cell, and strand of DNA in his mortal form was meant for the culmination of this moment and nothing else. He would faithfully serve him even past death's door.

Naruto misunderstood Gaara's gape, blushing in shame. He knew that he'd only get made fun of again. He already had enough problems with people thinking he was crazy, why did the gods have to be so cruel as to make him more defective? A janitor had told him a story about a swan that played the trumpet to speak for himself and he'd tried to advocate that idea to the wards, but it was shot down because trumpets were too loud. His second attempt at communicating without words involves a small markerboard he would wear around his neck, but the wards got in the way again, saying that the patients with violent tendencies (who were locked up for the most part) would absolutely love to strangle him with it. Silence mutually became the only acceptable option available.

But now, when he opened up his heart and mouth for the shining boy, his wish had been denied once again. Would he ever get the chance to find someone who would truly care for him? His eyes burned and found release in tears that mingled with his ramen.

"You're like everyone else…"

"I'm not." With a quick glance at the nurse who had been assigned to keep him under suicide watch, he learned that she wasn't really paying much attention to him, and wiped Naruto's tears away. "I will never hurt you. I will never betray you."

Naruto was hesitant to speak again. His voice was as small as a mouse. "Really?"

"How they could say something bad about something so beautiful is beyond me." His fingers ghosted across Naruto's cheek.

"Gaara…" Naruto kept the hand pressed to his skin. "I really like you. Are you still my friend?"

"Of course. I really like you too."

Yeah. He was sure he liked this boy.

Even if he did wear a little flashlight around his neck.

0o0

I edited a few things. Can you tell?

So, hopefully with this story, I'll gain experience in writing horror. I want to be flexible in all genres. Being stuck in one is too limiting for me. After this, I think I might do historical fiction… I've seen a couple of really cool historical fics in the NaruGaa section, but the problem is just that. There's only two. One's a western (does that kinda count as historical?) and the other is about Nazi Germany. I wish I could remember their names, because they're both hellaciously awesome and if you see them, you should read them immediately. I'll have to scroll through my favorites later and find that info out.

The next chapter will come here… eventually…


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